Honours Trustee Limited (HTL) was established in 1999 to purchase a £1.03 billion portfolio of student loans from the UK Government. This was the second sale of loans by the UK Government following a similar sale to Finance For Higher Education Limited in March 1998.

At the time of purchase of the loans in 1999, it was agreed that the Government would remain responsible for managing the deferment process and this continues to be carried out by the Student Loans Company on the Government’s behalf today. Customers whose loans were transferred to HTL were notified at the time of the sale through a letter sent jointly by HTL and the Student Loans Company.

When HTL purchased the loans in 1999 it entered into a contract with the Student Loans Company to continue to manage the loans. This contract terminated in October 2004 and HTL transferred the administration of the loans to a third party administrator who serviced the loans using the trading style of Honours Student Loans (HSL). In January 2016, the administrator was changed by HTL from Capita Customer Management to Link Financial Outsourcing with the Honours Student Loan style remaining in place.